The lack of public toilets in urban areas is a major cause of public urination in India. Image by the author.

Public urination[2] is a problem in many South Asian countries, especially India. Its not uncommon to see men urinating in public on walls, alleys and corners. The lack of public toilets is an issue, but poor understanding of hygiene and public decency also contribute to the problem. Blogger Udaas Priest[3] has a hilarious perspective on why Indian men urinate on public walls.

In the above video[8] uploaded to YouTube by The Clean Indian, you can see their Pissing Tanker in action. The group, whose members wear masks to conceal their identities, patrols Mumbai city with their giant yellow water tanker and sprays water on those urinating in public.

Their action has been greeted with mixed reactions from Indian netizens. Some supported the effort:

Blogger Manish Agarwal[20] argued that the tanker is not the right solution to stopping public urination. He listed some drawbacks of the idea:

What is the guarantee that person will not do same thing again.

How can ‘anti public-urination activists’ justified the use tanker for this purpose which run on subsidized diesel.

Last but not least, What about the WATER? All of us know water is very precious and a big population all over the world did not have access of water (forget clean or not).

There have been interesting debates[21] surrounding the topic, whether it is a cultural issue rather than hygienic, whether it is a problem at all[22] and whether people should bother. Comparing Indian practices with practices in other countries will not help much in the search for a solution. However, keeping walls maintained as well as increasing public awareness of cleanliness and health and safety issues certainly can't hurt.